Here’s a snapguide for how to create a QR code to an ibook. This would let you put a link in a slide or on a page that would immediately take one to an ibook. (You can do this for kindle books too but would just use the URL as you can’t buy inside the Kindle app on the ipad because Amazon and Apple couldn’t come to terms on Apple’s cut. You can just go to the Amazon webpage for the kindle and when it opens in safari, a person can buy and download from there.)

e-ink on one side and a full display on the other — Yota phone — that’s right Yota will use the force its close namesake Yoda would watch with curiousity. We are moving to devices with dual displays and even different types of displays. What if an iPad was a kindle paperwhite-like display on one side for reading - a lower power requirement with an HD power-sucking display on the reverse side? Interesting. this review from Mashable talks about the Yota phone which is a fascinating thought.

Either way — e-ink is in the future for schools, don’t doubt it for a moment. Librarians should be considering how students will be able to check out books on their edevices for many reasons including the inevitability of the demand. I was just talking today with a teacher talking about how Learning Ally, a company contracting to provide service for the US government talking books program, is so much better as an app on the ipad.

Harbinger of things to come.

The Kobo is a new ebook reader on the block by indie book sellers and other small chain stores (I read this weekend that Family Christian Bookstores are going to be selling the device.) The shift to ebooks is going to happen everywhere - my husband and I were wondering just yesterday how long Lifeway is going to publish paper Sunday School books — it makes more sense to release as a PDF, but then, you’re looking at a significant mark up and a whole new model which I think many companies who sell such subscriptions (i.e. weekly reader, local newspapers selling smaller versions for students) aren’t ready for.

Can one school publish 1000 books? Students can be publishers. Of course, I would ask and question if these books are being done well, but does it have to be done well? In the end, I guess ratings, etc. will help some rise to the top — sort of like YouTube but I wonder if the ratings system in place in iBooks or Amazon will allow such things to really happen as not everyone really writes reviews. I think writing reviews of book should be as simple as it is to write a review of an app — but one thing is for sure, the person should be confirmed to own a book before writing a review — that can be done with ebooks. Interesting idea and one for composition and writing teachers to consider (and this can be in tandem with art courses as a cross curricular.)

Lots of Kindle options now including the new Kindle paperwhite are shared in this rundown post from cnet - the best I found today on the topic. eBooks are here to stay. Textbook companies can wake up or be left in the wake of an epaper revolution that is shredding the traditional book publishing industry. We’ve yet to see a great interactive textbook but that is coming.

I have a student, Merritt, who loves to read. Her project this past school year was to rekindle our school’s involvement in the Kindle kids corner and she loves writing the reviews. My friend, Stephen Windwalker (the blogger behind Kindle Nation Daily) is letting her write on her own over the summer and I appreciate it so much.

If you have children who have the kindle app or an iPad, you’ll want to help them subscribe to this ebook review website. You could also have them write a review as part of their summer work and submit it on the website for inclusion on the blog!

This particular book, When it Happens, by Susane Colasanti is written by one of Merritt’s favorite authors and intrigues me to wonder if other girls are enjoying this author.

Free open textbooks that are peer reviewed to be of higher calibre. Free online and low-cost in print. If you’re looking at options, this is where you should go (if you’re curriculum director or administrator.) Start here for free open textbooks.

Amazing tool being used by +Jonathan Zittrain  at +Harvard University to make connections around the content in his class. He says “text makes an excellent way to link students.” Good textbooks will connect people to each other around the content. Those publishers that do not connect around content will cease to exist.

If you’re following Open Education or ebooks or anything about publishing, you’ll want to look at this tool.